Race Recon in the Rain — gravel cycling on the Cowichan Rail Trail

#gravelbike #bikelover #bike
The day before the Burnt Bridge Gravel Fondo, Catherine and I went to the Cowichan Valley Rail Trail to test out our legs and our bikes. In spite of the fact is was raining quite heavily, we gladly jumped on our bikes for a 90 minute ride up the valley towards Cowichan Lake. This is really a place you need to ride if you are a gravel bike enthusiast! It is definitely one of our favourite places to ride our gravel bikes.

Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/9921176625

00:00 Intro
01:36 First race at 60
03:59 First trestle bridge
04:38 Big trestle bridge
06:07 Turning around
08:55 Why is it called Burnt Bridge Gravel Fondo?
11:42 Finishing ride

[Applause] Hello everyone we are coming to you today from the cin Valley again this has to be one of our favorite places to ride our gravel bikes and as you can see the summer is over wintert feels is just around the corner how are you feeling Catherine

Fabulous happy to be out even in the rain would we ever have done this on our road bikes are you kidding me so tomorrow we are participating in the burnt bridge gravel Fondo and the weather tomorrow is not supposed to be any better than it is today but tomorrow the short version

Yeah we may be doing the shorter version version but tomorrow is a significant milestone for me cuz this is my first race as a 60-year-old so come along for our little ShakeOut ride love it in here on the couch and Valley raail Trail So as I say this is going to be my first race as a 60-year-old I think that’s one of the reasons I’ve being able to stay fairly motivated and try to maintain my fitness signing up for events like this just gives me something to look forward to and work

Towards even if I’m not really going to be all that competitive Katherine and I were really disappointed that our uh trans Rockies gravel Royale event was cancelled because of wildfires but we have signed up for a couple of events in late September obviously this one and October and then the season will

Be over but we’ve got some great riding plans for the winter so you might want to stay tuned to see what we’re going to do over the winter months so how are you feeling about tomorrow okay not so sure about making the cut off time for the longer course but uh I mean

We’re not doing the big big course it’ll be fun in any event I actually um I want to see the scenery of the 77k that we’re doing but we’ll see how the day pans out some of you might be wondering what it’s like to race gravel bikes in your 60s and in many

Ways it’s a lot more fulfilling than competing in Triathlon in my 30s and 40s Triathlon just always seemed to be so competitive whereas to me gravel biking is more about the experience than the results and I really appreciate that in my’ 60s and that’s what I mean about appreciating the experience

Es of gravel riding just getting out into these beautiful locations it’s just so invigorating um and I think as I get older I’m appreciating the experiences more and worrying less about where I place in my age group I mean I really don’t bother even looking at results any longer just because for

Me it’s really just about getting out and being active that’s not to say the races don’t serve a purpose they give me something to work towards and I do find that I’m working hard to stay as fit as I possibly can cuz I still want to be doing stuff

Like this in another 10 years so signing up for races signing up for events really gives you something to work towards keeps you Motivated remember when we crossed the bridge on the um the couch and Crusher oh go down oh down to the left [Applause] Okay so that’s the end of our ShakeOut ride we’re going to head back to the start of the ride Last time we were here there were Belgian waffle signs on the bridge all right let’s go fast for a little [Applause] Bit Wow what a beautiful place to grow Like it is just so magical even on a wet wintry day like today I think the other thing that sort of kept me gravel biking at 60 is I just find this so much easier on my body Triathlon always sort of beat me up whereas I find the grav

Riding a whole lot more gentle and after my knee surgery it was important for me to find find something to keep me fit and not destroy my leg or my Knee start it Up you know why they call this race to Burnt Bridge gravel Fondo yeah why cuz there’s a burnt bridge where um it’s on the 77k course maybe about 3/4 of the way through so that doing really s sent apparently 15 something per. but we’re okay done the death drop and then you get

Can’t remember if the bridges before or after a big time we’ll see whether we actually do the 77 km event tomorrow if it’s miserable we’ll just do the 37 km and that’s the nice thing about being 60 no one’s going to accuse you of being a Whm SL It Go This Is I have to say I was a little disappointed that there isn’t a 60 plus category in tomorrow’s race I have to wait another 5 years before I get in that special Category I really can’t think of a nicer place to do my first gravel bike race as a 60-year-old than the couch and Valley Rail Trail this has to be I think my favorite place to ride my gravel Lake if you get a chance you need to come to the couch and

Valley how are you enjoying the ride wonderful okay so that’s our ShakeOut ride for tomorrow’s race hope you enjoyed the video tune in and see how we did on the actual race anyway thanks for watching out and until we ride again take [Applause] Care Yeah